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Legacy of hydraulic gold mining in the Sierra Nevada of California. This >20m terrace contains high Hg contamination (~8 ppm) because Hg was used to amalgamate gold. The terrace is actively eroding during large flood events. (Photo by L.A. James; provided by Michael Singer.)

Peruvian Expedition. Photo provided by Doug Burbank.

Simulated wave propagation in the Los Angeles area for the hypothetical constant-slip rupture on the Palos Verdes fault. The component of the wavefield shown is oriented along 118 degrees measured from North, and is shown at 20 seconds after the origin time. Hot (cool) colors depict positive (negative) motion along this component, and black depicts quiescence of the waves. The surface topography, though not included in the simulation, is superimposed in the snapshot. Graphics provide by Kim Olsen.

Professors Douglas Burbank (UCSB) and Eric Kirby (Pennsylvania State University) conduct fieldwork on the active Kunlun fault that cuts across Buddhist Tibet near the Yellow River. Strike-slip displacement on the Kunlun fault terminates near the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (see Kirby et al., Tectonics, 2007) in an area where the Yellow River is rapidly incising headward (see Harkins et al., JGR, 2007).

Cat Reilly taking a soil core sample for laboratory testing in the North Campus Open Space Experiment.

Picture of water following drifting buoy tracking a fresh effluent plume front. Drifter observations were collected as part of a project to understand effluent fate-and-transport and ocean mixing. Photo Credit: Gabe Rodriguez

Graduate Student Kelsey Bisson monitors the status of the C-OPS during a cast. May 2015, North Pacific. Norm Nelson and Dave Siegel, PIs. Photo credit: Samantha Siedlecki, University of Washington.

Legacy of hydraulic gold mining in the Sierra Nevada of California. This >20m terrace contains high Hg contamination (~8 ppm) because Hg was used to amalgamate gold. The terrace is actively eroding during large flood events. (Photo by L.A. James; provided by Michael Singer.)

An array of seismometers stretching across the Garner Valley, California near mount San Jacinto. (photo: Hank Ratzesberger)

Marc Mayes exchanges lessons about local land use practices for instruction on GPS and LiCOR LAI-2200 leaf-area measurements at a field site with family owners, Tabora, Tanzania, November 2014. Photo Credit:

The Pickhandle Formation at the northern end of Owl Canyon, near Barstow, CA Photo by Nicolas Barth

Student interns with Katja Seltmann, Director of CCBER and entomologist, performing a sweep net sampling of wetland habitats as part of the Associated Student Coastal Fund Arthropod study.

Panoramic view of a south-facing experimental garden and surrounding landscape at Tejon Ranch. These garden experiments are examining the relationships between tree seedling establishment and microclimate to inform our projections of the effects of climate change on broad-scale tree distributions (June 2013)

The research ice breaker "Nathaniel B. Palmer" in the sea ice offshore from the McMurdo station, Antarctica. ICS director Bruce Luyendyk and seven undergraduate students conducted a marine geology expedition using this vessel during Winter, 1996. Photo by Carmen Alex.

Stuart Halewood Preparing the Plumes and Blooms CTD Seawater sampling package for a cast on the R/V Shearwater. The 7 stations from Santa Rosa Island back to the mainland are Optically and Biologically sampled monthly to depths of 400m and continue to be an important data time series for Coastal Southern california.

Student interns collecting arthropods using a malaise trap as part of the CCBER NCOS Baseline biological studies funded by the Associated Students Coastal Fund.

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The mission of the Earth Research Institute (ERI) is to support research and education in the sciences of our solid, fluid, and living Earth.

ERI strives to build upon the existing research strengths of our founding units while fostering new interdisiciplinary collaborations examining how Earth processes affect mankind and how mankind perturbs the Earth.

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Earth Science Cluster Hire

The University of California Santa Barbara announces a multidisciplinary cluster hire of four outstanding scientists to further strengthen its world class Earth surface process teaching and research mission